Many utility and all-terrain vehicles, and emergency vehicles as well, are equipped with a winch. A winch is most often attached to a vehicle by a secure bolting or welding arrangement to a frame, bumper, or other member that is designed to provide a secure and stable mount.
A winch typically comprises an arrangement of meshed gears driven by a power input and operationally attached to a rotary cable-spool. A length of steel cable or the like is provided with one end fixedly attached to the spool. Various apparatus may be affixed to the free end of the cable, which may be removeably attached to an object to be pulled, or to a stable object such as a tree to facilitate a reverse pull.
A winch may be electrically powered, manually operated, or powered by some other power source. In some apparatus, often termed a come-along, a cable may be attached to the vehicle and to another vehicle or object, and a ratcheting apparatus is provided between the two which has the effect of shortening the cable to provide a pulling effect. The overall effect is the same as using a winch.
As is known in the art, there are multiple uses for a winch that range from freeing stuck vehicles, to operations such as stump puling, post pulling, and the like. As a general rule, winches are designed to have different pull loads or strengths for differing situations. For example, a heavier vehicle may require a more powerful winch whereas a lighter vehicle a less powerful winch and so on. The winch has many documented uses and is well known in the art.
A serious problem that may occur during a winching operation is that the vehicle with the winch may not be anchored effectively. In this instance a stuck vehicle that is much heavier than a rescue vehicle will likely remain stuck, as the rescue vehicle supporting the winch will simply move toward the stuck vehicle during operation. This instability is due to the simple fact that the resistance of the stuck vehicle is simply greater than the pulling power of the pulling vehicle.
In conventional situations makeshift boards or wheel blocks may be used to constrain a vehicle from rolling or sliding forward during winching. Sometimes weight may be added to a vehicle by way of placing rocks or other heavy payloads into a truck bed. These techniques aid only marginally. Furthermore, such makeshift techniques are generally burdensome and time consuming.
What is clearly needed is a method and apparatus for anchoring and stabilizing a winch-operating vehicle such that the vehicle will remain fixed under application of pulling force much greater than would typically cause such a vehicle to roll or slide.